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Appendix B. FGDC Structure and Membership

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The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) operates under
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A–16 (revised August
2002). The circular incorporates Executive Order 12906 and reaffirms
the FGDC’s role to provide leadership for the National Spatial Data
Infrastructure (NSDI) and coordinate the development, use, sharing, and
dissemination of the Nation’s geospatial data. The effective use of
geospatial information requires close coordination among the many
agencies involved in its development.

The FGDC is an organized structure of Federal geospatial professionals
and constituents that provide executive, managerial, and advisory
direction and oversight for geospatial decisions and initiatives across
the Federal Government. In accordance with OMB Circular A–16, the FGDC
is chaired by the Secretary of the Interior, and the OMB Deputy
Director for Management serves as Vice Chair.

FGDC Structure

The FGDC is governed by a Steering Committee that sets the
FGDC’s high-level strategic direction. The Executive Committee, which
is a subset of the Steering Committee, provides advice and guidance to
the Chair and the Vice Chair.

The National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) is a Federal advisory
committee that provides advice and recommendations on Federal and
national geospatial programs. The FGDC Coordination Group conducts the
FGDC’s day-to-day business. The FGDC Office of the Secretariat, which
is located at the U.S. Geological Survey headquarters in Reston,
Virginia, provides strategic support and management for FGDC
committees, components, and initiatives.

The FGDC infrastructure also includes committees, agency-led working
groups and subcommittees, Geospatial Line of Business Work Groups, and
collaborating partners that represent State, Tribal, and local
governments, as well as industry and academic and professional groups.
All participants initiate and (or) support the following activities
that are crucial to expanding the NSDI and addressing national
priorities:

Providing advice and leadership in applying geospatial capabilities
to address national priorities and Presidential initiatives.

Developing and establishing the National Geospatial Data
Clearinghouse on the Internet.

Developing and implementing standards.

Creating a national digital geospatial data framework. The
framework covers seven fundamental geographic themes (cadastral,
elevation, geodetic control, governmental units, hydrography,
orthoimagery, and transportation) and is used in concert with many
other mission-specific data resources.

The FGDC is governed by the Steering Committee, which is the
policy-level interagency group whose central focus is to provide
executive leadership for the coordination of Federal geospatial
activities between, among, and within agencies. The Committee does this
by establishing policy and providing guidance and direction to the
member agencies. The Steering Committee is responsible for overseeing
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A–16 related activities
and for the implementation of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure.
The FGDC Chair and Vice Chair lead the Committee, which is made up of
senior agency officials for geospatial information and includes
representatives from Federal organizations, including the Executive
Office of the President, the Federal Executive Departments, and
independent Federal agencies.

A subset of the Steering Committee, the Executive Committee
provides advice and guidance to the FGDC Chair and the Vice Chair on
major Federal geospatial priorities and initiatives. The FGDC Chair and
Vice Chair lead this committee, which includes representatives from the
OMB and the seven Federal agencies that have the largest investments in
geospatial technologies. The Executive Committee makes recommendations
to the Steering Committee and provides a focal point for coordination
with the National Geospatial Advisory Committee.

*Designated senior agency official for geospatial
information.
Note: Executive Committee members are in
bold.

Coordination Group

The FGDC Coordination Group provides advice on the
day-to-day business of the FGDC to facilitate interagency coordination
and implementation of the NSDI at the operational level. The
Coordination Group oversees and provides the functional leadership for
the FGDC subcommittees and working groups, as well as the Geospatial
Line of Business Work Groups. The Coordination Group is co-chaired by
the Executive Director of the FGDC Office of the Secretariat and an
elected Federal member of the Coordination Group. Non-Federal
collaborating partners participate in most of the Coordination Group
meetings and participate in subcommittees and working
groups.

2010 Coordination Group Members

Co-Chair, FGDC
Office of the Secretariat

Ivan DeLoatch

Co-Chair, U.S.
Department of Defense, National Geospatial-Intelligence
Agency

Manages all administrative requirements associated with scheduling
and conducting meetings.

Undertakes staff analyses, technical development, and other
activities on behalf of the Coordination Group.

2010 Secretariat Staff

Executive
Director

Ivan DeLoatch

Deputy
Executive Director

Kenneth Shaffer

Senior Policy
Advisor

John Mahoney

Program
Analyst

Carol Greenough

Program
Assistant

Vanessa Hardnett

Program
Analyst

Arista Salimi Maher

Senior
Technology Advisor

Douglas Nebert

FGDC
Interagency Liaison

vacant

Framework and
Cooperating States Coordinator

Milo Robinson

Metadata
Coordinator

Sharon Shin

Standards
Coordinator

Julie Binder-Maitra

Training and
Education/Tribal Liaison Coordinator

vacant

NSDI CAP
Coordinator

Brigitta Urban-Mathieux

Program
Analyst Geospatial Line of Business

Roxanne Lamb

Senior Program
Analyst

vacant

Webmaster

Vaishal Sheth

Volunteer
(International Coordination)

Alan Stevens

Visiting
Scientist Global Spatial Data Infrastructure

Wonkug Baek

Student
Assistant

Steven Hak

National Geospatial Advisory Committee

The National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) was
established under the Federal Advisory Committee Act and is sponsored
by the U.S. Department of the Interior. It is an advisory body that
provides advice and recommendations on Federal geospatial policy and
management issues and a forum to convey views representative of
partners in the geospatial community. NGAC membership includes
representatives from 28 Government and nongovernmental organizations.
The committee holds public forums to discuss geospatial activities and
solicits input from State, Tribal, regional, and local governments,
academic institutions, and the private sector.

National Geospatial Advisory Committee Mission
Statement

The mission of the NGAC is to provide strategies for the
creation, management, and dissemination of cohesive geospatial data,
information, and knowledge to enable commercial, academic, and
nonprofit organizations and all levels of government to more
effectively—

Office of Management and Budget Circular A–16 identifies 34
data themes of national significance and assigns responsibility for
each of the themes to one or more Federal agencies. FGDC thematic
subcommittees are established for nine of these data themes.

Federal agencies lead and have responsibility for the thematic
subcommittees; each subcommittee focuses on a particular NSDI spatial
data theme. Lead agency responsibilities and new data themes may be
added or altered by FGDC recommendation and OMB concurrence.

Definitions of the nine active thematic subcommittees appear in the
chart below.

Thematic Subcommittees by Lead Agency and
Definition

Cadastral*

DOI BLM

The geographic extent of past, current, and future right,
title, and interest in real property; the framework to support the
description of that geographic extent. Geographic extent includes
survey and description frameworks.

Cultural and
Demographic Statistics

DOC USCB

Geospatially referenced data that describe the
characteristics of people: nature of structures in which they live and
work; economic and other activities they pursue; facilities they use to
support their health, recreational, and other needs; environmental
consequences of their presence; boundaries, names, and numeric codes of
geographic entities used to report information collected.

Geodetic
Control*

DOC NOAA

Common reference system for establishing coordinates for all
geographic data. All NSDI framework data and users’ applications data
require geodetic control to register spatial data accurately. The
National Spatial Reference System is the fundamental geodetic control
for the United States.

Geologic

DOI USGS

Geologic mapping information and related geoscience spatial
data that can contribute to a national geologic map database pursuant
to Public Law 106–148.

Marine and
Coastal Spatial Data

DOC NOAA

Marine spatial data are data that exist seaward to the
extent of U.S. jurisdiction. Coastal spatial data are data that exist
within the coastal waters and the adjacent shorelands, strongly
influenced by each other and in proximity to the shorelines of the
several coastal states, and includes transitional and intertidal areas,
salt marshes, wetlands, and beaches.

Spatial Water
Data (Advisory Committee on Water Information)*

Co-leaders: DOI USGS and USDA NRCS

Includes information about streams, lakes, reservoirs,
groundwater, estuaries, coastal areas, marine environments
precipitation and other hydrometeorological information related to
water resources management, and other aquatic habitats such as
wetlands.

Transportation*

DOT BTS

Used to model geographic locations, interconnectedness, and
characteristics of transportation systems in the United States;
includes physical and nonphysical components representing all modes of
travel that enable movement of goods and people between
locations.

Vegetation

USDA Forest Service

Collection of plants or plant communities with
distinguishable characteristics that occupy an area of interest.
Existing vegetation covers or is visible at or above land or water
surface and does not include abiotic factors that tend to describe
potential vegetation.

Wetlands

DOI FWS

Describes lands transitional between terrestrial and aquatic
systems where the water table is usually at or near the surface, or the
land is covered by shallow water part of the year. Also includes
related deepwater and riparian habitats.

FGDC working groups crosscut the subcommittees and focus on
infrastructure issues common to or supporting many of the NSDI data
themes. In fiscal year 2010 the Homeland Security Working Group was
retired. Descriptions of the working groups are listed in the chart
below.

FGDC Working Groups by Lead Agency and
Description

Technology and
Architecture

FGDC

The primary objective of the Technology and Architecture
Working Group is to develop requirements and recommendations for the
Federal Enterprise Architecture to better organize the use of
geospatial technology and data across the Federal enterprise. The
working group also supports the Geospatial LoB architecture and
technology-focused tasks.

Users/Historical Data

NARA

The Users/Historical Data Working Group promotes awareness
among Federal agencies of the historical dimension to geospatial data
to facilitate the long-term retention, storage, and accessibility of
selected historically valuable geospatial data. In addition, the group
is exploring becoming a general users group, for which historical data
would be one subactivity.

Homeland
Security

DHS

The Homeland Security Working Group ensures that the NSDI
supports the preparation for, prevention of, protection against,
response to, and recovery from threats to the Nation’s population
centers and critical infrastructures; these threats may be of
terrorist, criminal, accidental, or natural origin.

Metadata

FGDC

The Metadata Working Group promotes and coordinates
geospatial metadata activities among FGDC member agencies in support of
the NSDI. The Metadata Working Group promotes awareness among FGDC
member agencies of the metadata dimension to geospatial data;
facilitates the evolution and revision of the Content Standard for
Digital Geospatial Metadata; and establishes a mechanism for the
coordination, development, use, sharing, and dissemination of
geospatial metadata among FGDC member agencies.

Standards

FGDC

The FGDC Standards Working Group actively promotes and
coordinates FGDC standards activities. The Standards Working Group
provides guidance on FGDC standards policy and procedures, facilitates
coordination between subcommittees having overlapping standards
activities, and reviews and makes recommendations on the approval of
standards proposals, draft standards for public review, and draft
standards for FGDC endorsement.

The Geospatial Line of Business (Geospatial LoB) Work Groups
were developed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to support
the electronic government (E-Gov) initiative. The OMB has assigned
responsibility for these work groups to the FGDC. The Geospatial LoB
Work Groups focus on cross-agency geospatial issues related to
geospatial policy, business requirements, and business management
processes. Each work group has work plans that are updated and approved
annually through the Coordination Group and the Steering Committee.
Descriptions of the active work groups are listed in the chart
below.

Geospatial Line of Business Work Groups by Lead Agency and
Description

Common
Services

EPA

The Common Services Work Group is responsible for evaluating
and expanding Governmentwide and intergovernmental procurement
opportunities related to geospatial services and data
sharing.

Geo-Enabled
Business

FGDC

The purpose of the Geo-Enabled Business Work Group is to
demonstrate and communicate the value of geospatial approaches to
business processes and agency mission functions, especially to
audiences that have had limited experience with geo-enabled decision
support.

Grants and
Contracts

FGDC

The Grants and Contracts Work Group is responsible for
developing and implementing common grants and cooperative agreements
and contract language requirements for geospatial data, products, and
services to better leverage geospatial data produced by Federal
partners. The overall goal of the Grants and Contracts Work Group is to
capture, for the greater benefit of the geospatial community and agency
program managers, the large amount of geospatial information produced
with Federal funding.

Lifecycle
Management

EPA

The Lifecycle Management Work Group (or Lifecycle Work
Group) is responsible for evaluating existing geospatial data lifecycle
management frameworks and, based on these assessments, developing
standard terminologies and processes for the geospatial data lifecycle.
This group proposed actions affecting OMB Circular A–16 and governance
in the geospatial community.

Technology and
Architecture

FGDC

The primary objective of the Technology and Architecture
Work Group is to develop requirements and recommendations for the
Federal Enterprise Architecture to better organize the use of
geospatial technology and data across the Federal enterprise. The work
group also supports the FGDC’s working group technical and architecture
tasks.

The FGDC solicits the involvement of public interest groups
who participate within the committee structure to ensure that their
needs are included in the developing NSDI. These collaborating partners
include State, Tribal, and local governments; academic institutions;
and a broad array of private sector geographic, statistical,
demographic, and other business information providers and users. NSDI
strives to build upon local data wherever possible.

Collaborating partnerships are open to public, private, and nonprofit
organizations whose missions are complementary to the mission of the
FGDC. Organizations interested in becoming partners are invited to send
a written request to the FGDC Chair. Current non-Federal collaborating
partners include the organizations listed below.

Collaborating Partners and Descriptions

American
Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM)

A nonprofit educational organization that advances the
sciences of surveying and mapping and related fields to further the
welfare of those who use and make maps.

Association of
American Geographers (AAG)

A scientific and educational society whose members share
interests in the theory, methods, and practice of geography and
geographic education.

Cartographic
Users Advisory Council (CUAC)

An organization of representatives from national and
regional library organizations who are dedicated to cartographic
interests.

A professional and educational organization for chief
appointed managers, administrators, and assistants in cities, towns,
counties, and regional entities throughout the world.

National
Association of Counties (NACo)

A national association representing U.S. counties. The
association advances issues with a unified voice before the Federal
Government, improves the public's understanding of county government,
assists counties in finding and sharing innovative solutions through
education and research, and provides value-added services to save
counties and taxpayers money.

National
Association of Regional Councils (NARC)

An association of regional councils, councils of
governments, regional planning and development agencies, and
metropolitan planning organizations that advocates for regional
cooperation to address a variety of community opportunities and
issues.

National
Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO)

An organization that represents State CIOs and information
resource executives and managers from the 50 States, the District of
Columbia, and 6 U.S. territories.

National
League of Cities (NLC)

A national organization whose mission is to strengthen and
promote cities as centers of opportunity, leadership, and
governance.

National
States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC)

A national organization that provides a unified voice on
geographic information and technology issues, advocates State
interests, and supports its membership in their statewide
initiatives.

Open
Geospatial Consortium, Inc.® (OGC)

A nonprofit, international, voluntary consensus standards
organization of more than 365 companies, government agencies, research
organizations, and universities; leads the development of standards for
geospatial and location-based services.

University
Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS)

A nonprofit organization of more than 50 universities and
other research institutions.

Urban and
Regional Information Systems Association (URISA)

A multidisciplinary educational association for geospatial
professionals around the world.

Western
Governors' Association (WGA)

A nonpartisan association of 22 U.S. Governors established
to address important policy and governance issues in the West, advance
the role of the Western States in the Federal system, and strengthen
the social and economic fabric of the region.